KARACHI: Lucky Cement’s profit increased by three per cent to Rs9.6 billion during July-March 2015-16 from Rs9.3 billion a year ago.
The company’s earnings per share (eps) increased to Rs29.73 from Rs28.77. During January-March quarter, its earnings went up 2pc to Rs3.4bn (eps: Rs10.39) from Rs3.3bn (eps: Rs10.16) in the preceding quarter.
Gross margins during the outgoing quarter jumped by 140 basis points (bps) to 48.8pc amid a tilt in company’s sales mix towards local sales (up 8pc quarter-on-quarter to 1,460,000 tonnes). A year-on-year drop of 21pc in coal prices during July-March FY16 helped the company’s margins widen by 3.2 percentage points to 47.5pc.
Over the nine-month period, a 39pc drop in distribution costs was attributable mainly to a 34pc plunge in exports to 1,228,000 tonnes. The company booked effective taxation at 31pc (28pc in the second quarter of FY16).
Other announcements from Lucky included its rigorously taking up its new Green Field cement facility in Punjab (2.3 million tonnes capacity at $200m) with the provincial government, in order to acquire land and finalise equipment suppliers by June this year.
Furthermore, the company’s 10-megawatt waste heat recovery unit (WHRU) at its Pezu plant is expected to come online by December this year. The company is also in the process of revised tariff negotiation with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) for the supply of surplus electricity from Pezu power plant to Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco).
While the Lucky Electric Power Company is conducting various negotiations with engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors for its 660MW coal-based power plant. The company aims to achieve financial closure for the project by August.
